What colour is a virus?

Whatever shape you imagined, it’s probably brightly coloured, right? Well, that’s the kind of false impression that scientific imagery can foster. So how do we know when a picture has been coloured for purely aesthetic reasons?

It’s an issue that artist Luke Jerram explores in his series Glass Microbiology. These glass model of viruses were designed as truer visualisations with help from virologists at Bristol University, and you can see his work – which includes recreations of the H1N1 (see image), smallpox, e-coli, HIV and Sars viruses – at the Smithfield Gallery from September 21 to October 3.

“The question of pseudo-colouring in biomedicine and its use for science communicative purposes, is a vast and complex subject,” says Jerram. “Are there any colour conventions? What kind of presence do pseudo-coloured images have that naturally coloured specimens don’t? And how does the choice of different colours affect their reception?”